N. T. Wright is perhaps the most influential clergyman in the United Kingdom, and John Piper is perhaps even more influential here in the United States.
And the two have crossed swords.
This might be the most significant pastoral interchange of our time.
In the Acknowledgments Piper relates that he sent the first draft of the book to Wright, and that Wright sent back an 11,000 word response! Piper’s The Future of Justification gives us Piper’s response to N. T. Wright’s views on justification, and Piper recounts that the book is twice as long as it was before he received Wright’s interaction.
This is an important book. We can thank John Piper for teaching us how to engage in controversy, and we can thank Crossway for publishing a series of books that contend for the heart of the gospel: John Piper, The Future of Justification, Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, and Brian Vickers, Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness.
Last night Piper gave a great address here at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. The address made me want to read this book closely, but even more it made me want to read the Greek New Testament closely. May this book so inspire you, too.